Sliding into place in La Paz

12 February 2018


ALE removed and replaced spans of a bridge in La Paz, Madrid, using SPMTs and jacks to complete the job with just four nights of road closures.

The span was jacked-up and released from its supports.

It was then jacked-down onto 20 axle lines of SPMT with a support structure. ALE transported the span to a storage area using the SPMTs, ready for later demolition.

To insert the new span, weighing 330t, the method was reversed.

The new span was transported to the bridge from a storage area using the SPMTs. ALE jackedup the span so it was level with the bridge. The span was then extended over the bridge structure and jacked-down into place.

As the bridge is located on the busy M-30 ring road in Madrid, the highway was closed for four nights for each manoeuvre. However, ALE managed to reduce the operation time from 12 to 10 hours per night.

ALE overcame the challenge of the M-30’s high obstacles by jacking-down beforehand. ALE also had to jack-up and down on site at the time of the manoeuvre because of the lack of width on the M-30.

This was impossible before the M-30 was closed, so had to be performed efficiently to ensure it would not affect the road surface.